Halo 2 First Look - E3 2004

The good news about Halo 2 at E3 (besides the fact that a release date was
finally announced) was that a playable multiplayer map of the game was shown at
the conference instead of just gameplay videos as in years past. The bad news
though was that this was all that was on display and a playable version of the
game was not available on the show floor. Since many games due out during the
Holidays were on the show floor in a playable state, it is a little
disconcerting that Halo 2 was not and makes you wonder if it will indeed make
its November 9th street date. However, thatís when Bungie says the game will be
done so weíll just have to have a little faith. Anyway, enough depressing talk
about missed release dates; letís look at what was being shown at E3.

Causing some trouble with the plasma sword.

The first thing I was able to get a look at were some of the weapons
available in the game. There are plenty of old favorites (and not so favorites)
returning in Halo 2, including the sniper rifle, assault rifle, needler, and
plasma rifle. Some weapons are back and enhanced as well, such as the rocket
launcher which can now lock onto vehicles to fire guided rockets. The Covenantís
plasma sword is now a player-wieldable weapon Ė a very strong one although you
need to get up close and personal to use it. Finally, there will be some new
weapons too, including a combat rifle which works as a cross between the sniper
and assault rifles, and fixed guns used for base defense.

Like in Halo you wonít be able to carry an inventory of weapons, but a new
feature in Halo 2 is the ability to dual-wield weapons. You can hold a weapon in
each hand and use the left and right triggers to fire the corresponding weapon.
This extra firepower comes at a cost, though. While dual-wielding weapons you
can not throw grenades, and it takes you a longer time to reload than it does
when you are holding a single weapon. Also some weapons will require two hands
and so can not be dual-wielded, such as the rocket launcher and sniper rifle.

Vehicles will be back in Halo 2 and usable in multiplayer battles. The
Warthog will now come in a version with a rocket launcher and the Covenantís
Ghost will have a turbo speed boost button. In Halo 2 the vehicles will not only
be destructible, they will feature location based damage. You can shoot the
tires out from under a Warthog and make it very difficult to drive or clip the
wings off of a Ghost. The physics model used to affect the vehicle damage and
handling also makes for some cool explosion effects when a vehicle is totally
destroyed, such as tires that go bouncing away from a destroyed Warthog. A new
feature in Halo 2 will be the ability to hijack vehicles. If you can get in
close enough, you can knock another player right off of a Ghost and go speeding
away with their ride.